My study is NOT as a climatologist, but from a completely different perspective in_x000D_ which I am an expert … For decades, as a professional experimental test engineer, I have analyzed experimental data and watched others massage and present data. I became a cynic; My conclusion - 'if someone is aggressively selling a technical product who's merits are dependent on complex experimental data, he is likely lying'. That is true whether the product is an airplane or a Carbon Credit.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes skepticism towards the claims made about technical products, especially when they rely on complex data.
Burt Rutan highlights his perspective as an experimental test engineer, advocating for a critical view of technical claims that depend on complex data. He suggests that if someone is overly aggressive in selling such products, there is a strong likelihood that they are misrepresenting the truth, which can apply universally across various industries, from aviation to environmental credits.
In practice
In a presentation about the importance of critical thinking and data literacy, you might quote Rutan to emphasize caution about data interpretation.
I think we're just scratching the surface. One of the most exciting aspects of 23andMe is that we're enabling you to watch a revolution unfold live during your lifetime, and I think that the decoding of the genome, in my opinion, is the most fascinating discovery of our lifetime, and you get to be part of it.
I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are coming. If you will pardon so commonplace a simile, we have set off the fire alarm and have nothing to do but to wait. I do not think we will have to wait for long.
Intellectual-property rules are clearly necessary to spur innovation: if every invention could be stolen, or every new drug immediately copied, few people would invest in innovation. But too much protection can strangle competition and can limit what economists call 'incremental innovation' - innovations that build, in some way, on others.
Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it.
The total disorder in the universe, as measured by the quantity that physicists call entropy, increases steadily over time. Also, the total order in the universe, as measured by the complexity and permanence of organized structures, also increases steadily over time.
When I began in 1960, individuality wasn't an accepted thing to look for; it was about species-specific behaviour. But animal behaviour is not hard science. There's room for intuition.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.